Let me clarify your statement above. The CNM, who works in a hospital where monitoring a baby and mother can be done readily and easily, will allow some mothers to go longer with ruptured membranes.

OP, it is best to find out your providers standard of care when water breaks prior to labor and ask all your questions in advance so there are no surprises when the big day arrives. Best of luck mama!

There is no difference, actually.

This CNM monitors the same way a CPM would at home. Through auscultation with a doppler every 30 minutes, and by temperature taking with a thermometer. There is no difference other than one is at a hospital, one is at home - same methods are being used.

This CNM monitors the same way a CPM would at home. Through auscultation with a doppler every 30 minutes, and by temperature taking with a thermometer. There is no difference other than one is at a hospital, one is at home - same methods are being used.

Actually, there is.

A CNM will perform a NST on a baby in the hospital. A CPM does not do that with her handheld doppler. A doppler is rather useless in a case of fetal distress.

Correct, a CPM wouldn't perform an NST because that isn't within her scope of practice. However, ff there were non-reassuring FHT, a good, trained CPM that was doing her job correctly would transfer at that point. I know I, and my preceptor and many others I know would.

Anyway - no use in bickering back and forth

OP - hope you have at least enough information to do some more research on your own and make the best judgment call for yourself!

Correct, a CPM wouldn't perform an NST because that isn't within her scope of practice. However, ff there were non-reassuring FHT, a good, trained CPM that was doing her job correctly would transfer at that point. I know I, and my preceptor and many others I know would.

Anyway - no use in bickering back and forth

OP - hope you have at least enough information to do some more research on your own and make the best judgment call for yourself!

To the bolded - BINGO!

Someone who is supposed to be trained in an emergency and with whom you trust to bring your child into the world safely is NOT trained on how to read a non stress test. You can not detect non-reassuring FHTs with a doppler. You can hear decels but to qualify it as "non-reassuring" you must look at the whole picture and you can not do that without an NST.

"Many CPMs are willing to let a mom go however long she wants after her water breaks because they believe everything is a variation of normal and science based medicine means nothing".

There. That is better.

OP, I would wait for a consistent contraction pattern after your water breaks, as long as you are not GBS positive. I wouldn't wait at home for more than 12 hours after your water breaks. Best of luck.

Actually, most of the CNMs I know are fine with this as well. I think we can all recognize that blanket statements are usually meant to mean "most" or "many" and not all. A good friend of mine gave birth at a birth center with CNMs, and her water broke several days before labor started. As the PP stated, she was told to drink tons of water and to monitor her temperature.

OP- it's certainly something worth discussing with your care provider. Find out what their recommendation is and what their limits are (some want you to call or come in right away, etc). Then, based on your own circumstances (GBS or not, history of precipitous labor or not), you'll be able to make a good decision about what to do.

Something that may be worth looking into is how to avoid PROM altogether. I drank Emergen-C almost daily during pregnancy and baby would have been born in the caul, but my MW broke the bag as she was crowning in order to get the cord off her shoulder. I was GBS+ so it was important to keep the bag intact as long as possible. Best of luck to you!

From a personal perspective, my MWs pretty well told me that if my water broke in the middle of the night, don't call until the morning unless I need to. And yes, my water broke at 5am, I called around 8am to give them the heads up. We headed to the hospital for 9-10am since I was GBS+ and needed a couple of doses of antibiotics. I didn't have a regular contraction pattern until 11am and had the baby before 4.

With my first I actually stayed at work for about 4 hrs after my water broke waiting for contractions to start ( I worked in an assisted living center and basically wasn't doing anything but watching tv b/c I worked nights and everyone was asleep) I didn't start feeling contractions until 11 hrs after when my dr came in to see me and started pit. This time I plan to give myself about 12 hrs if my water breaks before I go into the hospital if I'm not having regular contractions.

@ shortchica....I just noticed how similar our lo's names are...My oldest is Karmen and the baby is Adrianna

With my son my water broke at about midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning. We went to the hospital around 6 am Monday and my son was born...almost 2 pm on TUESDAY.

After I went past 24 hrs of broken water...nothing happened. They continued only doing sterile speculum checks of my cervix and let me labor until around 28 hrs w/o pitocin. No NST were ever conducted.

Aside from what most other people have said about brown/green water you (or someone else) should check for anything that may be 'hanging out' esp the cord. In the incredibly rare chance you see cord call 911.

__________________
Wife to Brandon - my high school sweetheart (Oct 00), delaying vaccs as best we can and WOH parents to Trent (Nov 08) our intact, formerly ERF, slightly son and Lilly (May 12) our , maybe one day , and (for now) daughter (my hypnobaby).

Chris on a candle stick. This isn't a hb v hospital birth thread. We can have that discussion elsewhere.

Like other pps mentioned, since you are obviously choosing to birth in a hospital hence the question when should I go to the hospital it depends.

Like in my case, was gbs unknown because my water broke @ 37 weeks and labor never started. I went in pretty soon (I didn't sprint, but we made our way there) and this time i have gd so I will probably go so they can watch my BP and sugar.

It just depends on you situation and any risk factors you see like gbs, BP, GD, prom, meconium, no labor etc.